Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Dann Lowers the Boom on Failing Charter Schools

Attorney General Marc Dann (D-Liberty Township) took a tough step against failing charter schools today, and bully for him. This afternoon he filed lawsuits against two schools in Montgomery County, home turf of Ohio House Speaker and charter school champion State Rep. Jon Husted (R-Kettering), alleging that they are failed charitable trusts and should be closed. The schools in question are Colin Powell Leadership Academy in Dayton and the New Choices Community School in Englewood.

There are many struggling charter schools, but these two are among the worst. According to the Columbus Dispatch blog The Daily Briefing, Dann said:

There are lots of charter schools in this state that serve great purposes and do what charter schools were designed to do…we don't want to interfere with that. But certainly there are 30 or more that scream out for this kind of attention. Whether I can get to all of those I don't know.

I am very pleased that Attorney General Dann is taking decisive action to send a message that persistent failure by charter schools will no longer be tolerated. It is important for charter schools to know that failure is no longer a choice for our children.

This type of strong action has been sorely missing the past several years despite my persistent calls for stronger academic and financial accountability for charter schools. I am glad that we have a new sheriff in town who will no longer turn a blind eye when charter schools betray the public’s trust.

In addition, according to the Dispatch, Dann's action "prompted Ohio's largest teachers union to drop a lawsuit against the state that alleged education officials were failing to monitor the privately operated, tax-funded schools."

Although charter schools have as many passionate defenders as opponents, it is apparent to all that many of them are failing to deliver adequate education. This decisive stroke by Dann is timely and merited, and yet another example of his pro-active approach to the myriad problems plaguing the state.

1 Comments:

Attorney General Dann has decided to take on the failing charter schools. Unfortunately, he has seemingly not taken any notice of the failing public schools in the state. There are at least 108 public schools that are in the same dismal shape as the three charter schools he has targeted. In fact there 9 of them are in the Dayton Public School system.

The failed public schools have been in existence longer than any charter school. The failed public schools have wasted far more Ohio tax dollars through the years.

I believe that any school that does not perform up to an acceptable standard should be shut down. This would include charter and public schools. To only target charter schools can be viewed as nothing more than biased politics.

Here is a twist for this blog. Let’s change the word charter to public and add a few extras so the revisions will make sense.

There are over 108 struggling public schools. There are 9 Dayton public schools that are among the worst. But Mr. Dann has chosen to ignore taking action against these 9 public schools. Instead he is targeting 3 charter schools instead.

Citizens are dissatisfied that Attorney General Dann has failed in taking decisive action to send a message that persistent failure by these failed public schools. Citizens feel helpless as they do not want any more state tax dollars being wasted on these failed public schools. Citizens want Mr. Dann to know that it is important for public school systems to know that failure is no longer a choice for their children. If only the charter schools are closed, parents will have no other choice but to send their children to the failed public schools.

Any type of strong action has been sorely missing despite persistent calls for stronger academic and financial accountability for the failed public schools. We need a new sheriff in town who will no longer turn a blind eye when public schools betray the public’s trust.

Although public schools have as many passionate defenders as opponents, it is apparent that many of them are failing to deliver adequate education. Unfortunately Mr. Dann has chosen not to give the failed public schools the decisive stroke. Mr. Dann has failed to be pro-active to the myriad problems plaguing the failed public schools of Ohio.

How about that for a revision of words. But unfortunately these words will not come to pass anytime soon due to political grandstanding and strong public teacher lobbies. The above revisions are only wishful thinking.

For the information of those reading this blog, here is a list of Dayton schools that rank as bad and worse as compared to the three charter schools Mr. Dann has targeted in the Dayton area. You can freely access this data from the Ohio Department of Education Web site.